The Yellow Rose
by K'onix
Summary: Every year she gave him a yellow rose with red tips. Every year, except this one. Ranmaru wonders about the change in her feelings, failing to realize his own. RanxPrincess. Side story to You, Me, We, Us but it's not required to understand this two-shot.
1. Change

For those of you who don't know, this is a side story to You, Me, We, Us. It's a two-shot. It centers around Ranmaru and Tamao Kikunoi, also known as the Princess. This takes place before Kyo gets hurt (or while he's getting hurt) and after he's a little better. So after the next chapter of YMWU is updated, this will be finished.

If you haven't read You, Me, We, Us, then here's a small break down. If you know the story, then you can skip this, or if you don't care.

Takenaga and Noi got married. When they found out they were going be parents, they decided that depending on the gender of the baby, they would name it after their best friend. Surprise, surprise, they had twins. A boy and girl. The birth of Sunako and Kyohei (more widely known as Suna and Kyo) was everything Noi had hoped for…until they started fighting. So, during the summer she sent the fourteen-year-olds away. Suna went to Kyohei's and Kyo went to Sunako's. After a bad fall Kyo ends up in the hospital. That's where I left my readers…

And finally, I don't own Wallflower.

_The Yellow Rose_

* * *

He really didn't know how to feel. He hated to say that he expected it, but he honestly did. He knew that now matter where he was, on the twenty-sixth of November, he would wake up to a flower.

It had happened for years. He'd wake up to see it on his dinning room table, or even in his office. A single yellow rose with red tips. The simple card say _To: Ranmaru _in elegant script. He knew who it was instantly. The Princess. Though how she got it into his house or office without him knowing was beyond him.

Ranmaru let it go after a while, figuring that he was just part of the charm she had developed since he'd last seen her. Yet, for the flower to show up and Noi and Takenaga's was something else. It seemed that nothing would stop her from getting the flower to him. He had to admire her.

That morning he woke up to a yellow rose in a simple vase on his bedside table. Ranmaru recognize the handwriting easily now. It was defiantly something that'd he could identify instantly.

Ranmaru smiled as he took the rose gently between his thumb and forefinger and lifted to his nose. He'd never really liked the smell roses, but there was something about the smell of her roses. Like she spent enough time with it that it carried her own smell to him.

There was a small knock at the door. Ranmaru glanced up as Noi opened the door noiselessly and peeked in.

"Good morning," she smiled. "Like your rose?"

"Very much," he answered. "Where's your _lovely_ husband? I really don't think that he should know about this."

"I'm going to ignore that last comment and tell you that he's at work," Noi sniffed as she walked into the room. "Which is where you should be."

Ranmaru yawned. "I'm on vacation,"

"And living here," she added under her breath as she took a seat at the end of the bed. To anyone outside their family, it would seem that they were too close to just be friends. But they had never been a normal family, not with their members. Noi actual felt nothing when she sat with Ranmaru like that.

"Just because I know you miss me." He said with a charming smile.

Noi rolled her eyes. "Who's the rose from, anyway?" she asked.

Ranmaru didn't hesitate to tell her. She'd just find out somehow. "The princess."

"Oh," Noi said blinking. "I didn't realize that you two were in contact."

"We see each other from time to time and some function or another. Every once in a while we have dinner together. Just as friends, of course."

"Of course," Noi muttered sarcastically. "So why the rose."

Ranmaru smirked, eyeing the yellow rose. "It's a…ritual of ours."

Noi looked at him, eyeing him up and down with narrowed violet eyes. Suddenly, her eyes widened. "Oh, God!" she shouted, "You didn't steal her virginity, did you? Man, Ranmaru, I told you to be nice to her. That could have really affected her. OH! You've ruined her for any other man! Because God knows you're never going to marry her!"

"Noi, catch a breath!" Ranmaru shouted back as he slammed a hand over her mouth. Noi glared but stayed quiet as his hand left.

"I didn't sleep with her." he explained. She glanced at him, clearly not believing a word he said. "Look, you can call her. I know you two still talk."

"She never mentioned you or any roses," Noi practically growled as she glared at the wall.

"It's kind of a private thing," Ranmaru answered. The married woman turned her glare to him, obviously wanting an explanation.

Ranmaru sighed and ran a tired hand through his dark red. "Every year she sends me a rose on the day we met. It's always a yellow rose with red tips; it symbolizes friendship and falling in love. It's just a reminder that she's still here. Still waiting."

Noi looked at him. "And you're making her wait?" she asked, "How rude."

"I'm not ready to be married," he muttered to himself, knowing very well that it would only server to enrage the strong-willed woman. Her favorite argument was that he was in his late thirties.

"Wait, did you say that it's always a yellow rose with red tips?"

Ranmaru glanced at her. "Yeah, why?"

"That rose doesn't have red tips," she pointed out, while actually pointing at the rose.

Ranmaru looked down. She was right. It was just a bright yellow rose. How had he missed that. A yellow rose meant friendship, but what about the love part? Didn't she still love him?

Noi left the older man to think things through. If she had known that he would have that strange of a reaction, she would have let him figure it out on his own.

She wandered back downstairs thinking about the woman. Noi couldn't deny that Tamao Kikunoi was beautiful. But, as she always thought, beauty came at a price. The weird girl was hopelessly in love with the relationship-failure that is Ranmaru Morii.

Or was she?

Noi wondered if Ranmaru knew that yellow roses simple meant only friendship. Was this a sign? Was she wising up? Had she met someone?

Questions that ran both Noi's and Ranmaru's mind. Only his had a slightly more worrisome tone to them.

Why would she even bother to send him a flower, then? Ranmaru worried. He'd set the flower back in the vase to pace around the room freely.

Maybe he could call her…except that she was at work. He actually liked that about her. He'd never met someone who wanted to work. She could let her father pay for everything like all his women let him and their husbands pay, but she preferred to earn some on her own. It was just a small, nothing job, but she liked it, nonetheless. And she found it very important, and didn't like it when she was interrupted from it.

So that left him to boil until she got off in at the end of the day.

Maybe he could go down there and buy something, then she'd have to talk to him!

That seemed a bit mean. It would mean that he'd waste her time. She wouldn't appreciate it, but wouldn't say anything. She was nice like that. He honestly thought that she was too nice most of the time. She was a princess through and through, though. Sometimes he wished that he could be that nice to someone. Though they had similar past, she was so different from him. She was nice and cared about others, while he enjoyed dating married women. He liked that about her.

Maybe the flower store was just out of red-tipped yellow roses. That had to be it…

If she was good enough to get the stupid rose into Takenaga's guest room without anyone noticing (or at least with Noi's approval) then she could get a stupid yellow rose with red tips. She was too resourceful. He'd seen her at work before. A long time ago, one of his bigger hotels were hosting a party for a very well known man, and his manager just up and quite. The princess stepped in a saved the day. The party was a hit, but before he got to properly thank her, she had disappeared into the night. It was never mentioned again. But he love the way she had handle everything. It was probably something she learned from her mom. Either way, Ranmaru knew that he'd never be able to work like that. Not with that amount of class while still demanding things.

He was running out of excuses.

Ranmaru rolled his dark eyes. What was going on? He was acting like his girlfriend had forgotten to come home the night before. That wasn't the way things were though. Not between them. She was the girl that was there, waiting for him quietly in the back round.

Maybe that was the problem. Maybe she was tired of waiting and giving him a friendship rose was her way to saying it. She'd never really been a forward person. Maybe she wasn't in love with him anymore and was just trying to let him down easily.

Not for the first time, Ranmaru wished for Suna and Kyo. Those brats could always take his mind off of things. He loved them both. Suna with her strong-willed, loud personality. He remembered when she was just a baby. She'd always let the room know when she was in it. No one was ever not aware of her presence.

Kyo, on the other hand, had a quite determination air. He was calm and cool, but loveable all the same. Not like his father, but his own type of person.

The two could be great, if they'd just stop fighting. They used to be able to tag-team Noi before they started. Suna would burst into a room and distract her mother with every question under the sun, while Kyo would get the job done.

Ranmaru laughed. Noi and Takenaga sure got lucky with those two. Silently, ever since that one kid had shown up all those years ago, he'd wondered what his real kid would be like. Would he be more like Ranmaru or his wife (or whoever, really)? Would he be the perfect combination of both? Would it even be a he? Would he love to have a girl?

Yeah. He would.

But now his fiancé was, what, giving him up? Telling him that he's finally being released?

Suna and Noi would never take this laying down, and Kyo and Takenaga would find a way to find out what was really going on.

So would he.

--

Noi was worried. Hours had past and she hadn't heard a word from Ranmaru. He was just being silent upstairs. No stomping, no yelling, just nothing.

She really hoped that he cared enough not to go back to sleep. Whether he realized it or not, the princess was actually perfect for him. She was the perfect woman for him to settle down with. She would forgive and forget his past. She would be good to him. She would love him for all the he was, and all that he wasn't. She would give him everything.

At least, Noi hoped that she still would. The rose had affected her thoughts and feelings more than she lead on.

Noi hadn't realized how much time had gone by until her husband had come home in a huff. She hadn't even started dinner yet…forget it, they would order in.

Takenaga sat down at the table with his usual elegance, but Noi could tell just by looking at his brooding eyes that something was wrong.

--

Ranmaru was losing his mind. He had only fifteen minutes to wait before he could call and figure out what was going on.

He could just ask her straight out. There was no real reason to hid it. She knew what she's done. Or he could invite her out for dinner. He would love to look at her face as she told him the truth behind the ugly flower.

"Ranmaru," Takenaga broke into his room, breathless. "My son's in the hospital."

Or he could put his love life on the back burner until he was sure his family was okay. Maybe this could give him more time to think if he didn't lose his mind first.

* * *

So that's the first half. It's kind of weird. I jut wanted to express how much Ranmaru has actually come to like her and even matured a little. I'm not sure if it's come through the way I wanted, but either way, here it is. The second will be up after the next chapter of You, Me, We, Us. It won't be too confusing.

Hope some of you enjoyed it. It's just a little side story. I like happy ending and I didn't know how to incorporate the princess into the other. Then I had this idea for the yellow rose and figured I could turn it into a side story.

Thanks for reading. Sorry for any mistakes.


	2. Music

This is the final chapter of the Yellow Rose. Thank you all for reading it. I hope you enjoy this chapter.

Disclaimer: I don't own.

* * *

Somewhere in the back of his mind, he always knew that people, especially his loved ones, where able to leave. Not just leave, but able to be lost, stolen, and all together gone. Just like that. Maybe it was having the fact shoved right into his face while Kyo was in the hospital that made Ranmaru put his mind in order.

A yellow rose was bad. He realized that. It could only mean that she was moving on and ready to forget him, or at least ready to forget the love she once had. Now that he knew what he wanted, he could do a better job of getting it.

For someone who was used to getting what he wanted, he was unusually nervous.

Ranmaru did everything that a calm, composed person should not. He fidgeted, looked around constantly, and breathed loudly. He was making the server worried. Poor girl, he thought as she sent him a wary look while cleaning another table.

Yet, no matter what he did, he could not calm down, for the life of him. It was not the first time he has had dinner with her, his princess, but this one meant so much more. This one was where he finally answered her questions, finally told her that he was ready for her. He hoped that she'd accept it.

"Ranmaru," God, her voice was as musical as ever. Strong, yet soft at the same time, it carried a sweet sound that only an instrument could make. Why, oh why, did he ever wait to bed her? She would be music, pure music all night long. "This is unusually. I'm always the one waiting."

Instantly putting on a calm front just for her, he smirked. "This night is a bit different," he said as he stood up and moved to seat her. "I wanted to be here to greet you, my lovely lady."

She smiled in gratitude as she sat herself down. "It is nice to see you in good health. Please, tell me, how Kyo is doing."

Ranmaru smiled. "He has made a remarkable recovery; you should check on him, he'd like that."

Tamao Kikunoi smiled brightly. "I figured he would. He is strong-willed like his father and stubborn like his mother. Of course he would come through. I wish I could have been there, though. I wanted to be."

Ranmaru smiled in return. "It would have been nice having you there. Lord knows that Noi could have used the extra comfort."

Tamao blushed. "So what is the reason you called me here, Ranmaru?" she asked in hopes of changing the topic. "I know it wasn't to discuss Noi and the rest of the family."

"Can't I just want to spend some time with you?" Ranmaru questioned with a shrug. "I mean, you are my fiancé."

She stiffened at the end of the sentence and he knew that he was wrong. Looking away from him, she said, "Yes, of course."

"I did have a question, though," he continued, studying her profile. As always, she looked like the classic princess. "About the flower I received."

"Yes," she encouraged, starting to take deep breaths.

"I got a yellow one." He stated, decided that beating around the bush would just be mean.

Again, she nodded.

"So, were they out of the other ones?" Ranmaru didn't know what to do. He was anxious for her answer.

Finally, she looked at him. She was sad, and it seemed that she was about to cry. Instantly, Ranmaru's heart broke. He'd made her cry, but how?

Why?

"No," she whimpered. Then, taking in a shuddering breath, she collected herself. "What do you want me to do, Ranmaru? We're almost forty. Half of our lives are gone. Years that I wanted to spend happily married with a family are now gone. Please understand that I don't want to have to wait any longer for you."

Ranmaru nodded. "I understand."

He waited another minute, unsure if his next question should even be considered. Yes. "Is there a guy?"

She looked at him. "Yes," she answered quietly. "He works around the corner from me. He's a bit younger."

Ranmaru snorted. "You don't need some inexperienced fool for your first."

Her look changed from hurt to hateful. "I am an inexperienced fool; and since when does age have anything to do with experienced. I would have thought that that would have been obvious to you, of all people."

Holding and hand to her mouth, Tamao rushed for the exit. Ranmaru stayed, waiting for her to get far enough way before he followed her out. The server came by, giving him a dirty look and the check.

Ranmaru got into his car and sat there. His phone buzzed and he answered heartlessly, completely dazed. Her husband was out of town; he'd be there in a minute.

A week went by and Ranmaru counted the days by women. Day five was the cute blond while day seven was the heiress. He didn't know their names and didn't care to ask. He didn't want them. He wanted music and harmony. Those sluts did not offer the music he wanted.

By the eighth day, he was at his wits end. He wanted his princess. He wanted the comfort that her thought brought. Finally, he couldn't handle it anymore. After all this time, he had gotten used to her being his. That was who she was.

Ranmaru knew of only one way to handle the situation. There was only one way to fix the problem.

Her condo was on the twenty-seventh floor. He had a whole elevator ride to think of what he was going to say. As the ding of the bell rang, he realized that he still had no explanation for being there, but that didn't stop him at all.

He was about to knock on her white door when he noticed that it was open, only slightly. Ranmaru rolled his eyes as the desire to yell at her for her careless came to him. He opened the door and entered the large area. The red head froze as he saw a tall man messing with the stereo, facing away from him.

Rage boiled in him as Ranmaru took in his lack of shirt and loose dress pants. He cleared his throat to get the strangers attention, giving his best glare for a good measure. The man turned, surprised to see the new person.

"Um, I—" The man started.

"Get out." Ranmaru ordered. His voice was firm and dangerous.

The man rushed away, passing Ranmaru as he slide through the door. He didn't even stop to collect his clothes, Ranmaru thought with satisfaction.

Suddenly, the reason for his being there appeared from the hallway dressed only in a slip. Ranmaru stared as his feelings of anger and wanting clashed. In the end, anger won out and he marched towards the girl.

"You have no right to be here!" she said as he came toward her. She was making a good show of being upset, but Ranmaru could see past it.

"I have every right," he replied smugly.

Tamao shifted to one foot and crossed her arms over her chest. "Oh really? Because I thought that we broke up."

Ranmaru choose to ignore that has he pushed pasted her and walked back into her room, also ignoring the protest she let out. When he got to the room, he was even more disturbed to find the bed sheets thrown around the bed with a carelessness. Turning back to her, he spoke with even tones.

"So, how was your first time?" he asked sweetly. Slowly, he advanced on her, caging her to the wall of her hallway. "Did he appreciate you properly? Put your pleasure before his own? Did he enjoy those sounds you made? Did you enjoy his? Did he treat you the way you should be treated?"

During his interrogation, he ran his hands down her sides. He placed small kisses just below her ear, and then came to rest his forehead on her shoulder and breathe down her neck. He heard more than felt her draw in breaths in deep gasps.

"You know," he said next, lifting his head to gaze down at her, "A part of me is actually glad that someone got to you first; gives you something to compare to."

Tamao shivered as he kissed her for the first time. At the same time, it was everything she waited for and nothing she expected.

He was pushy and dominating and needy. He pulled her and pushed her. He bent her to his will as he led her to her own bed.

Hours later, he rested his head on her collarbone and sighed.

"You tricked me," he murmured while playing with her long hair.

She giggled and it rocked her whole body. "You assumed,"

He gasped in amazement. "You gave me no choice."

Tamao pushed him off her and sat up. She turned to face him, completely comfortable and taking pleasure in the fact that even though she was naked in front of him, he was still looking at her face.

"I brought him home after dinner. We started to, but I became uncomfortable with him; with the thought of him being my first ever. I had always thought that it would be you, no matter what. I guess I still needed time to get over it.

Anyway, I sent him into the living room to up some good music on while I came up with an excuse. I was called into work early. My friend's cat is sick. Anything. That's when you showed up."

Ranmaru chuckled. "Glad to be of help."

"Thanks for being here," she said, running a hand up and down his arm in a soothing way.

Ranmaru took her hand and kissed it. "I can't believe you waited for me. I'm really not worth it."

She laughed and again it was music to his ears. Every sound she made, he discovered recently, sounded beautiful and musical to him.

"I know you're not worth it," She leaned down and kissed him. "But I am."

He smirked. "True. Very true."

"So when's the wedding?" she asked as she continued to kiss down his body.

"Whenever you want it to be," he sighed. She was perfect. He was suddenly very happy to be marrying this woman. No one else would truly appreciate her or her pure skill. Oh, all the things he could teach her.

"Soon," she answered. "It has to be soon."

"Soon is good," he agreed mindlessly.

She came back up to meet his eyes. Ranmaru wasn't sure why he didn't admit to his love sooner. As she had said before, they had wasted half of their life because of him. Taking in her beauty, he promised that she would enjoy the rest of her life like no other woman. He would make sure of it.

She gave a small giggle. "I think my mother is going to be upset about this happening before the wedding."

Ranmaru snorted. "By now I'm sure she'll be happy that it's me."

They laughed together and kissed, enjoying the pureness of it.

"I love you," she whispered, pushing a piece of red hair out of his face.

He blinked. He had never said it to anyone before, but without even thinking about it, he returned the expression.

It was then, when he said, "I love you, too" to her, when he realized that it was going to work, and that it was meant to be.

* * *

So that's the end of this story. Sorry that it's so short. For those of you reading You, Me, We, Us be looking for the last chapter soon. I've got it all planned out. I've got quotes and scenes and pictures. It's actually looking pretty good right now. I think it may be one of my best endings yet. It closes off everything very nicely.

I hope you enjoyed this side story though. Sorry for those of you who weren't expected that ending and to those of you who wanted more. I don't write smut though. Besides, then I would have had to change the ranting to M and that's jut not nice.

Thank you all for the reviews! I love them. Thank you for reading The Yellow Rose.


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